I’m actively involved with an association based in the Côte Basque dedicated to preserving the memory of those in the Basque country who risked all in support of the Allies during WWII. I work together with the son of a wartime Basque “
passeur” (Comet guide) in researching the history of Comet’s operations in the area. Very little was committed to paper at the time for obvious reasons and so we have to use what little hard info we have – plus contact with the few remaining veterans and descendants of those wartime helpers.
Comet was run in the South West by Mme De Greef (aka ‘Tante Go’), a Belgian refugee, and she kept a meticulous log in an exercise book of each crossing – dates, names (rank, service, home address ) and names of the Comet guides. She kept all her incriminating papers in a coffee tin tucked away on a shelf in a nearby shop. Fortunately, I have a copy and it has proved invaluable, together with evader reports, in helping to unravel – as best we can – what actually happened.
There were two main axes for crossing the Pyrenees: the first was the original route pioneered by Andrée De Jongh. This involved a 4-5 hr trek up and over the mountains until they reached the River Bidassoa at a location known as San Miguel – where the river marked the frontier between France and Spain. After fording the river, they were faced with a sporty climb straight up through a mass of tangled vegetation before emerging in more open, but no less rugged, country.
Their destination was “Sarobe Farm” – a safe house near Oiartzun, Spain. This trip would normally take the evaders about 10 hours – and up to 14 hours in inclement weather (viz George Duffee). They would rest at the farm until a car arrived from the Consulate at Bilbao to take them first to the Embassy at Madrid, and then on to Gibraltar and home.
After the arrest of Andrée De Jongh in January 1943 at Bidegain Berri, a safe farm near Urrugne, a Belgian noble named Jean François Nothomb (aka “Franco”) became head of Comet. Due to the heightened security by German patrols in and around the coastal frontier area, “Franco” set about establishing an alternative, less risky, inland route. I’ll cover the inland route(s) in a future post.
One of the outcomes of the round-the–clock bombing of the Reich by the 8th AF by day and the RAF Bomber Command by night was that the number of Allied aircrew evaders ‘in the system’ ramped up sharply and once the Allied Tactical Air Forces achieved air superiority over large swathes of France, the wisdom of evaders using the French rail network was called into question as P-47s and rocket-firing Typhoons roamed at will looking for targets of opportunity.
Over 800 Allied airmen were successfully repatriated while in the care of the Comet Line, with 286 successfully evading via the Pays Basque – the balance of 500+ airmen were held concealed in makeshift camps in large forests (
Fréteval in France and the Ardennes) and kept supplied by air.
Only two evaders were lost while in Comet’s protection. One was the outgoing head of Comète in Belgium, Count Antoine d’Ursel (aka “Jacques Cartier”), who was ‘burnt’ (ie, his cover was blown by the Gestapo) and was en route to London.. The other was 2nd Lt James Frederick Burch, USAAF – a 26 year old B-17 co-pilot from Terrell, Tx. This tragic saga will be the subject of the next post.
Interactive map
here.
Below: Mme De Greef (aka "Tante Go"); the Bidassoa valley; Bidegain Berri, Urrugne; "Franco"; Count Antoine d'Ursel; 2nd Lt James F Burch, USAAF.